USS Alabama

In case you can’t tell by all of the posts about Battleship Memorial Park, this was Patrick’s favorite day of vacation. A Navy Veteran of Desert Storm, he was like a kid in a candy store. He almost ran from exhibit to exhibit and we have an insane amount of photos.

“Can you get this angle here?” “Hun, what about this angle?” “Can I take the camera?”

We spent hours there and he crawled all over that ship. If he could have fit and gotten away with it, he may have even climbed into the guns. Beautiful weather, Patrick’s excitement, solemn reverence for the memorials by everyone, and nods of acknowledgement and respect for the military men and women moving through the park – It was a good day.

For the history and movie buffs, I’ll now segway into a bit about the Alabama’s history and Film careers. She is a magnificent vessel and I hope the photos do her justice. These are some of our favorites. Not too long ago, the Sailor, in the iconic end of WWII pic of a kiss in Times Square, passed. We never even thought of it when we snapped a photo of our own kiss in front of the Alabama. A bit of nostalgia. It has turned into our favorite photo of all.

USS Alabama History & Movie Tidbits:

The USS Alabama, a South Dakota-class battleship, was laid down on 1 February 1940 by the Norfolk Navy Yard. Launched on 16 February 1942, it was the sixth ship of the United States Navy named after the state of Alabama. Serving in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, the Alabama, South Dakota, and North Carolina bombarded Roi Islet on 29 January and Namur Islet on 30 January. She fired 330 rounds of 16 inches (406 mm) shells and 1,562 rounds of 5 inches (127 mm) ammunition toward Japanese targets, destroying planes, airfield facilities, blockhouses, other buildings, and artillery emplacements. Alabama accumulated nine U.S. Navy battle stars for her various missions and World War II service.

Even after retirement, the missions don’t stop for the Alabama. The action was supposed to be occurring aboard Missouri, and that ship was shown in some of the footage, however, Alabama was used for most of the battleship scenes in the 1992 action film Under Siege. The ship was used as a stand in for the USS Iowa in the ABC miniseries War and Remembrance. The opening scene of the low-budget movie, Rapid Fire, was filmed aboard Alabama and the ship is now being used in the film USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage starring Nicolas Cage.